Whatsapp CEO Jan Koum had decided to sell and he wasn't short of suitors. These included Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Google's Larry Page who was ready to outbid any amount offered by Zuckerberg. The mobile messaging application's influence was growing really fast worldwide as there were over 450 million subscribers and Zuckerberg felt incorporating Whatsapp into Facebook would strengthen his company's position in a faltering technology market.

Larry Page on the other hand pitched the idea of buying Whatsapp but allowing it to stay independent to Koum. He's reported to have told him, "you are a big threat to Facebook, why join him? If you do, it'll affect how things play out for years to come". This pitch however didn't go down well with Koum who felt Page was only interested in buying for the sake of hurting Facebook. Not even the guarantee of outbidding Zuckerberg could persuade Koum and co to change their minds. The things that happen in business...